Crime and Development in the Land of Barrie
Monday’s Salisbury City Council meeting should have been a total snoozefest. There was nothing controversial on the agenda. But leave it to Mayor Barrie Tilghman and her minions to make sure that dissatisfied citizens would show up to voice their concerns.
Barrie’s Chief of Police has announced that crime is down in the city. Perhaps it is. If Chief Webster’s numbers are accurate I would give the lion’s share of the credit to Sheriff Mike Lewis and his deputies for increased patrols in the city of Salisbury. It surely can’t be because of a commitment to community policing on the part of Chief Allan Webster. The Chief’s solution is to close two police substations (oddly enough in areas that don’t vote heavily enough for Barrie and her handpicked cadre).
Several citizens came out Monday night to speak against the Tilghman administration’s decision to close down the Smith Street and Cecil Street substations. These included former council members Bob Caldwell and Jim Ireton as well as Camden resident Shawn Thomas. Both Messrs. Caldwell and Ireton were right on point in their message. Abandoning the substations will cause an increase in crime in both the Camden and Princeton Homes neighborhoods. There is already one business that is shutting down due to crime and the local Wa-Wa refuses to stay open 24 / 7 (as is the company’s practice) due to the already high crime rate and danger to their employees.
The most powerful speaker of the evening was Mr. Thomas. He shared his experiences as a child living on Smith Street (where one of the substations to be closed is located) and then on Camden Avenue. He told the council how he had recently been propositioned by a 14 year old prostitute while walking his dog as well as a recent run in with three truant children. The message was loud and clear to all except for Mayor Tilghman’s “council leadership” of Louise Smith, Gary Comegys and Shanie Shields who could only sit in silence.
Mr. Thomas was followed by former council candidate Pat Hannon who, whether by luck or planning, brought the entire discussion into perspective. Mr. Hannon started off with a discussion of the proposed city impact fees. He noted examples of northern Virginia counties that are levying impact fees of between $30,000 - $50,000 per single family unit while the brain trust of Louise Smith, Gary Comegys and Shanie Shields refuse to levy impact fees of even $1,8000 per unit on new residential development. Yet, the city sees fit to close two police substations in established neighborhoods.
Mr. Hannon noted that a local developer is to receive a new road for his development while Mayor Tilghman will not fix a pot hole in front of Mr. Hannon’s house at the corner of South Blvd. and Riverside Drive. Developers receive subsidies while residents of long standing receive nothing for their tax dollars except noise, traffic, poor roads and increasingly dangerous neighborhoods.
While I never thought of it in those terms before, Pat Hannon put it all together for me. The clear message from Mayor Tilghman and her “council leadership” is a simple one:
If you are already here PAY and expect to keep paying while we not only allow your neighborhoods to decay, we will promote that decay by stripping you of essential services while we subsidize new residential development and refuse to hold the city’s slumlords accountable.
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Comments
Good call, Cato. Mr. Thomas was brilliant! There is nothing quite so powerful as listening to a speaker talk from the heart, about things personally experienced. His voice was a clarion call to the citizens of Salisbury. Let’s hope the call resounds.
We do not believe for one second that crime is down. If we called police everytime we see something “going down” we’d have to buy another cell plan just to handle the calls. Not to mention open yet another police sub-station.
Sneeky Peek-
Wasn’t that just a crime? The amount for affordable housing would be $3750 to $7500 total for the entire development!
And Shawn Thomas was excellent! I hope that we can hear more from him.
You overlook the most absurd aspect of last night’s thriller — letting that land be annexed next to Perdue Stadium with only a pittance for affordable housing. Where are the janitors for all those offices going to live, unless they rent from Donny and the like?